All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
We don't get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.
Interpretation
Understanding others requires initiative; we must reach out to truly know them.
This quote emphasizes that genuine relationships and understanding of others do not happen passively. To truly comprehend the character and qualities of individuals, one must actively engage and invest effort in getting to know them, rather than waiting for them to come forward.
In practice
In a team-building workshop, this quote can remind participants of the importance of reaching out to their colleagues.
All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.
I am amazed to see how deliberately I have entangled myself step by step. To have seen my position so clearly, and yet to have acted so like a child!
Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.
Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
This devaluing of listening is handed down from generation to generation. There are many children who don't have the experience of being listened to by their parents.
A desire for social connection is fundamentally hardwired into our psychology, and so being deprived of it has devastating mental and physical consequences. Yet we live in a society which has become ever more fragmented and atomised.
All B.S. aside, it all comes down to... we got to survive. I mean, even warriors put their spears down on Sundays. We got to survive here in this country... 'cause I'm not going back to Africa. We got to survive here. And for us to survive here-White folks, Black folks, Korean folks, Mexican folks, Puerto Ricans-we got to understand each other.
Make your interactions with people transformational, not just transactional.
If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?
I will never have a photograph of her to carry around in my pocket. I will never have a letter in her handwriting, or a scrap-book of everything we've done. I will never share an apartment with her in the city. I will never know if we are listening to the same song at the same time. We will not grow old together. I will not be the person she calls when she's in trouble. She will not be the person I call when I have stories to tell. I will never be able to keep anything she's given to me.
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